Slice of Pai

PAI, Thailand — The Mae Hong Son Loop is a famous route in far northwestern Thailand, known for its stunning mountain scenery and indigenous hill tribe villages. When we found out that we could rent a Suzuki Samurai 4×4 in Chiang Mai for $25 a day and explore the Mae Hong Son Loop at our own pace and on our own terms, it was just too tempting to pass up.

So, yesterday morning I went to the car rental place a few blocks from our soi to pick up our Suzuki. When I asked the proprietor, Lok, a list of questions about liability in the event of an accident or other mishap, he simply smiled and said, “Don’t worry, insurance cover. Enjoy drive!” Here’s hoping he’s right.

At first I was a bit uncomfortable driving in Thailand. The traffic runs on the opposite side of the street, the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and all the controls are backwards, making the whole experience of driving feel rather awkward. For the first hour or so, each time I reached for the turn signal I turned on the windshield wipers instead.

Getting out of Chiang Mai was stressful. Kamikaze motorcyclists and whole families on scooters swarmed like bees around us in traffic. Once, however, we were out of the city, the drive was fantastic. The Suzie — as we’ve taken to calling our little jeep-like Suzuki — bucks like a horse over every smallest bump, but otherwise it has performed admirably. The only problem with it is its stereo. Lok assured me that it worked well, but once we were under way we discovered that the radio didn’t work due to a missing antenna. So, our only music on this roadtrip has been a mix of sickeningly syrupy pop songs by the likes of J-Lo and Jessica Simpson that happened to be on a crusty cassette tape we found in the Suzie’s glovebox. As everyone knows, you simply must have music on a roadtrip, but I don’t know how much more of this I can stomach. We’ve vowed to look for some new cassettes at the next gas station we pull into.

That first day we drove to Pai. Pai is only about sixty miles from Chiang Mai, but it took over three hours. About ten miles outside of Chiang Mai, we turned left on a two-lane road and began a dizzying ascent up into the mountains. The Mae Hong Son Loop is very popular with motorcyclists because of its hundreds of razor-sharp switchbacks and hairpin curves. Our top-heavy Suzie, however, teetered and tottered around each bend, its phlegmatic motor wheezing on the steeper stretches until we had to turn off the A/C for fear of overheating it. For the first couple of hours of the drive we passed through ever thicker jungle vegetation, until topping a divide of some sort, at which point we began a steep descent into the drier deciduous forest of the valley where Pai sits.

Bridge over the River Pai.

Pai is a strange place. Renowned as a hippie Mecca, its 3,000 inhabitants seem to make a living primarily from selling food and beer to new-age travelers and various other species of vagabond at its many cafes and bars. Our guidebook said the place materialized out of nowhere back in the 70s when a few zonked-out wanderers discovered it and laid their claim. The town sits in a valley, hemmed in by mountains, with a lazily winding river flowing through it.

Perhaps we’re a little down on Pai because we’ve been sick since shortly after getting here. We arrived in town around 3 o’clock yesterday, starving from not having eaten anything since breakfast. Once we’d found a place to stay and dumped our gear in the room, we walked into the center of town to find a place to eat. After grazing the amazing food of the local street vendors in Chiang Mai for several days, Julianna wanted pizza, but I talked her into going to a trendy little Middle Eastern restaurant instead. Big mistake. Within half an hour of eating there, we were both feeling green around the gills. We’re pretty sure her chicken kebab was the culprit.

Pretty much all day today we’ve laid about, napping and feeling a general malaise. The latter half of the day I spent sitting on the back porch of our bungalow, looking at the slow-moving river and watching a couple of farmers tend their cattle and hack at dense brush with machetes. It’s easy to get down when you’re not feeling well, but we’ve tried to remind ourselves that it’s all just a part of traveling in the Third World. No pain no gain, right?

But we’re both feeling much better this evening, so the plan is to load up the Suzie early tomorrow morning and head out for the town of Mae Hong Son, the halfway point on our 4-day roadtrip. We’re looking forward to visiting some remote hill tribe villages in the next couple of days. If there’s any Internet access down the road, I’ll try to shoot off another dispatch before we return to Chiang Mai. Until next time,

Pickett

P.S. I stole this posting’s title from the local English-language newspaper. Wouldn’t want to be found guilty of plagiarism!